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ReadersSpeak
Signature versus PIN a hot topic Users are authenticated via PIN or biometric security,
transactions are tokenized, and there's no mag stripe to
Staff Writer Dale S. Laszig received the following feedback on "Chip and compromise. Along with recently introduced mobile
PIN debate roils retail, payments sectors," published in The Green Sheet payment schemes from Walmart and CVS, uniformly
Aug. 22, 2016, issue 16:08:02: offering consumers mobile payment options at checkout
would go a long way toward reducing card fraud today.
T he Home Depot, Walmart, Kroger and oth-
ers understandably oppose card associations' John Coloe
contract language mandating a signature debit Mobile Payments Consulting Strategist
option for consumers at checkout. Signature
debit transactions ride the credit "rails" with higher inter- Great points, John. There's no doubt chip-and-PIN is a
change rates than PIN transactions that are routed on less more secure payment method than chip-and-signature
costly debit networks, and PIN authentication/verification for the very reasons you and numerous retailers have
is inherently more secure. In fact, the latter is, in large mentioned.
part, the very reason for lower interchange rates on debit
transactions in the first place. Aite's recent report (featured in the article cited above)
advises retailers to weigh chip-and-PIN implementation
Retailers of all sizes, as well as issuers, resist chip-and-PIN costs against purported benefits, which is sound advice
due to additional costs for implementation and further for small merchants who have never used PIN pads.
changes to consumers' experiences at checkout, when However, customer-facing PIN pads have long been a
weighed against too little forecast reduction in fraud. staple of enterprise-scale retailers; it makes sense they'd
want to leverage existing infrastructure after being early
If we're truly interested in eliminating fraud resulting EMV adopters.
from lost, stolen and counterfeit cards in the United States,
we'd move to chip-and-PIN as quickly as possible, while Dale S. Laszig
fully embracing tokenization and phasing out the mag The Green Sheet Inc.
stripe altogether.
Sound off here
Interestingly, mobile payments platforms such as Android
Pay, Apple Pay and Samsung Pay, currently offer these We welcome your opinions on current industry trends
enhanced security features, if in slightly different form. and issues at greensheet@greensheet.com.
